"home for the holidays"

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Do you think "home for the holidays" campaigns made by rescues contradicts the "pets aren't presents" message?

I've been seeing a lot of 'take a new friend home for the holidays' posts by various rescues and shelters, but to my knowledge bringing a new pet home during holidays was a big no-no, that shelters/rescues generally discouraged it and suggested people should wait until after the chaos is over.

To me "a home for the holidays" says that you can get a pet as a present for the holidays, as long as you adopt from a shelter/rescue. However, I see the "pets aren't presents" campaigns aimed more towards those considering purchasing pets from pet stores/puppy mills/back yard breeders.

well...would you like to spend the holidays alone in a cage? Especially if you had once had a home and a family? I get that dogs aren't people but do you really believe they don't know? Sabi has been most thorough in her inspection of the Christmas boxes and although all the stockings look alike she is well aware of which one says Sabi. If I took all that away from her and left her in a strange place I believe she would know. And shouldn't the season of giving include our companions?

I get what you mean. I suppose I'm somewhat of two minds about it. On the one hand, if people are going to get their kids a pet for Christmas, better to get from a shelter/rescue than a BYB/pet store. On the other hand, I, too, thought that shelters/rescues often discouraged adopting during the holidays, both to avoid impulse decisions and because of all the hectic activity going on.

I suppose they figure if people want a dog for Christmas, better they consider and be allowed to adopt, rather then the shelter saying, 'No, come back after Christmas', since many people will just go somewhere else to get the dog.

I think the distinction is that we (the rescue I work with) run our home for the holidays promotion from Oct - Dec and what we're saying is adopt and add a member to your family in time for the holiday.

I believe what the "pets aren't presents" promotion is saying is don't surprise someone with a pet, don't bring a puppy home two days before Christmas and overwhelm it, don't buy without thinking about what you're going to do with it after the holidays.

Good shelters and rescues aren't going to agree to let you surprise someone with a pet, and that's one of the biggest drawback of pets as presents. If the pet is matched well with the family, the holidays can be a good time to bring home a new pet, because many people have time off then to get a new family member settled in.

When I managed a shelter we did promote Holiday adoptions, BUT... we didn't allow them as "surprises" and they could be picked up AFTER Christmas (or up to a week before).
We had a special packet with literature, dishes, collar and leash, etc., that parents could give on Christmas day along with a picture of the new pet.
It worked out really well, yet we still had policy in place to refuse those last minute "get a living present" people.
We also encouraged parents to think of the shelter pets while shopping with their kids and as a result, we had a lot of visits with people bringing toys, etc., to the dogs for the holidays.